The idea behind 12 Inch Discs is to create a shop that's focused on physical media (audio, video, etc.) that takes the form of 12" discs, primarilly (initially) Long-Playing (LP) vinyl and Laserdiscs. In addition to media, the shop features information, accessories, playback equiptment and service.
I'm not sure when I first thought of this, but I've wanted to run a record store for a very long time (probably since the last time I stopped working at a music store). Then I got into Laserdisc, and it seemed like too much of a coincidence that two of my favorite forms of media just happen to be exactly the same size!
I'm still not completely sure where to begin, so I started by purchasing a domain name. I think the next step will be to create a (slightly less) simple website and list the albums and laserdiscs in my collection that I'm willing to part with for sale. Eventually I'd like to open a physical location, and dedicate real time to two of the three C's (Curation and Consumption).
It seems kind of crazy to be considering something as traditional as a "brick and mortar" shop but there's nothing that isn't kind of crazy about this whole idea. Retail space is relatively cheap here and I could even offset some of that cost by using the space as a sort of "coworking" thing (even if it's just myself) to keep the lights on and a warm body ready to help anyone who might wander in. Having a physical location might also make it easier to do service, and of course helps reduce the need to ship things which is something I really don't like dealing with.
Beyond that, I'm interested in the third C (Creation) as well. Creating 12" records is a fairly well-known process involving a machine called a record lathe; something I've wanted to experiment with for ages. The creation (authoring?) of video Laserdisc is another matter, and while I've been able to learn some things about creating them (and even have some idea of how I might do it at cottage scale), the tricky part is finding suitable blank media.
There's some more far-out things that can be distributed on 12" discs that I'd like to explore and curate as well. Software, in a form akin to how I stored my VIC=20 programs on audiocassette can be recorded on to an LP. Video too has been encoded on to vinyl, and that would be a fun thing to experiment with. I've also noodled on how a 3D printer and other CNC machines might be controled using audio tracks from a record allowing distribution of physical parts via 12" discs.
So there's all sorts of potential areas to expand into, but I'm also trying to find ways to incrementally make it real so I have fewer excuses for not getting it done.